The Sovereignty of God

    Letter to President Nixon, January 12,1973

   I recently ran across this letter concerning the Christmas bombing of Hanoi in December 1972. It is an interesting historical reminder of a terrible event in a disastrous war. But more importantly I was surprised by the prophetic nature of paragraph three, not so much by the content of the paragraph as its startling fulfillment in our lifetime.

   We think of the Lord as a bestower of blessings and indeed He is, manifold daily blessings. But we often forget that He is a sovereign God, a God of righteousness and judgment.
  
  We have free will and are free to make choices in this lifetime, but we are not free to choose the consequences of those choices. That is in the hands of God. That is true for all of us as individuals. It is also true for nations. In this regard we would do well to study the prophets of the Old Testament era, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others, men who were called by God and spoke His message of judgment and redemption. That message applies not just to their time but for all time.

      The Nixon Letter*

 90 Fernview Road
          Morris Plains, N.J.
        07950               
          January 12, 1973

The Honorable Richard M. Nixon
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Dear Sir:

  The tragedy of our time, etched in blood and destruction by the B-52’s
over Hanoi, is that the leaders of America know not the things that make for peace.
When our president in direct statement affirms that he worships at the altar of a
nation’s honor, it is clear indeed that he has not, alone with his Lord, sought divine guidance through the maze of the Vietnam debacle.

  There are times and they are many in this life when nothing but the Will and Love of God can save us from ourselves.  This light upon the path can only be found through an earnest seeking in the spirit of humility and trust.  It becomes more apparent day by day that you do not possess these qualities nor do you seek any will but your own.  The fact that you believe your action best for the nation merely underscores the tragic irony of your awesome spiritual choice.

  If you only knew, sir, that your bombs fall not on Hanoi alone but on New York and Washington, for in that coercive, wanton, destructive act you have sown the seeds of judgment – a judgment not having its source in any human agency but, indeed, in the righteousness of God, Himself.

 Sackcloth and ashes would be a proper attire for your inauguration.  Only in a repentant search for the way of self-sacrificial love can the people be saved and the lives of men and nations find ultimate significance.

Very truly yours,

Robert H. Johnston
cp  Senator Clifford Case

*Retyped copy of original carbon copy